The death of a brain

Due to my area of interest, I read a lot of articles linked to most aspects of brain neurology – anatomy, function, biochemistry, as all of it adds to the overall picture. The brain is clearly as important organ and can make everything go haywire if the slightest thing goes wrong. Stating the obvious I know. Independent of my past research project in dementia, I’ve recently seen an increase in the number of articles focussing on cognitive function.

During my clinical placement, I saw what memory loss can do to a patient and the effects it can have on family and friends. It really is a terrible thing to be stripped of all your memories and I can only imagine what a terrifying experience it must be. Have you ever had those sort of dreams where you are transported to some place you don’t recognise and have no recollection of how you got there? It makes your heart race just a little bit faster, the anxiety kicks in and you begin to feel restless and uncomfortable. Now imagine having that same feeling in real life where you are fully awake and you have to deal with all those emotions on a daily basis. Actually scratch that, imagine having to deal with that situation every 30 or so minutes because that’s how long your brain can retain such information. Just think of the sheer exhaustion your body goes through when the adrenaline kicks every half hour or so – physically tired as well as mentally. Sounds like a horrifying situation doesn’t it?

It’s one of the reasons why so much research time and effort is directed towards manipulation of brain functions. So how can we solve this problem? Perhaps we should have some sort of external method of storing our thoughts. Although this is veering a little towards the bionic side and science fiction, I remember the film ‘6th Day’ in which people could have a new body made should their old one get damaged and have their thoughts transferred over to their new clone. An interesting transition and something that perhaps may be used in the future, one way or another. There is also talk of an artificial brain being developed that is only 10 years away. An article in Medscape magazine raises the issue of who decides when a brain has fulfilled it's lifespan? Also who is it that will make that key decision? As it is an organ, surely is has the capacity to be regenerated? A jolt of electricity would be sufficient to kick start the neuronal activity again and resume normal brain wave patterns surely? Furthermore researchers in the USA are also looking at ways of editing memories. On the whole, it all sounds rather exciting doesn’t it?

So why in the back of my mind is there this niggling feeling? I agree something should be done but why does the idea of a researcher/scientist editing my memory scream ‘lobotomy’ to me? The thought that someone else other than me will have the power to decide which memories I should or shouldn’t keep. I told a friend of mine about this article and she stated that without any control over what your own thoughts what difference is there between you and someone with dementia? I don’t think she fully understood the concept but she did raise an important issue – control. Whether it was a manipulation of stored memories or the implantation of a ‘new’ brain, it all boils down to an individual wanting some control over their life; that is the key thing to bear in mind. Just wanted to end with this final article in which David Blunkett has promised to donate his brain to research after his death. The donation of healthy organs is something which would help tremedously and I agree with Dr Chris Morris on how a lot more time, money and effort is required in this area of research.